Can hypnosis make a person do things they don't want to do?

I've had numerous discussions with people claiming that hypnosis can be used to make people forget their names, steal and even kill someone. I don't believe in any of this and I think that hypnosis isn't even that effective in changing beliefs, let alone command people to do things they don't want to do. What are your thoughts?

-2- Keep in mind this forum promotes hypnosis, so there is an inherent bias by some members. It’s like going into a butchers shop and asking if meat is healthy for you. Of course the butcher is going to sell you meat.

For the best information, find peer reviewed, scientific studies on the benefits and limits of hypnosis.

The short answer, no...hypnosis cannot make a person do anything. The person must agree to the suggestion.

The short answer is undeniably “yes”. I have done it in harmless ways to verify for myself, and I have talked to people who have been on the other end of it in much less harmless ways.

How it actually works and what the limitations are is a much bigger question, but the summary is that if you can know to resist you’re usually fine. “If you know to” and “usually” are big caveats though.

If you want a more in depth look about how actual hypnotists look at the nuts and bolts of these things, there are many past threads on this forum which are really fascinating. As you can see, there are others that have done these things too, and people have been quite open about how this stuff actually works and what the [significant] limitations are.

It’s worth pointing out that while he speaks as if he knows the answers, Richard is only guessing (both that there would be a bias and about what hypnosis can do), and his ideas should be taken with a large grain of salt. He doesn’t actually know enough about hypnosis or have enough familiarity with the peer reviewed scientific studies to be able to verify whether the bias exists or not or whether hypnosis can do any given thing or not. And I say this as a Richard-verified “butcher who has transcended these biases”

hanaan143 wrote:I've had numerous discussions with people claiming that hypnosis can be used to make people forget their names, steal and even kill someone. I don't believe in any of this and I think that hypnosis isn't even that effective in changing beliefs, let alone command people to do things they don't want to do. What are your thoughts?

I suspect that, as with many other things, the hypnosis as presented is movies, is really different from the hypnosis that professionals practice. It is something interesting, definitely. I might actually try it out for my panic problems. Some people say that it works for them, I do not know for me, though. I really let my panic run wild, and now it has a full hold on me

as the author of the thread which Richard recommended, i had the same questions myself not long ago-in fact it was watching video's of people not knowing their names, not being able to move and not being able to count to 10 correctly which caused me great angst . i was very disturbed to think that our minds are so weak that mumbling a few words in them are able to totally alter our perceptions & reality.

i have been researching this topic ever since and found that .according to the papers i have been reading this is not the case for the vast majority of people, only a small percentage of the population is considered highly hypnotizable. it seems that according to the research, many of these people are highly suggestible even outside of hypnosis and are able to perform equally in either case. much of it is also attributable to what expectations of hypnosis people have and how they think they should act. they are the one's who are used for studies as they are capable of experiencing a much wider range of effects than most people. in fact, there is a tremendous debate in the field of Psychology about the subject of trance, the effect of inductions (or if they are even necessary at all) and even what the definition of hypnosis even is.

people who are in the high category exhibit characteristics similar to patients with hysteria and those who suffer from delusions. personally i would consider it a tremendous weakness to be one of these people and find watching them under hypnosis doing silly, irrational acts to be very embarrassing. fortunately for me, as someone who is extremely analytical and logical, i would very likely fall into the very low hypnotizable category-which i would consider a strength. the bottom line is that aside from a very few people, it is as simple as deciding you are not going to comply and you should have no problem rejecting the suggestions. if you are interested in learning more,, i would suggest doing what i did and googling some of the many available research papers on the subject as they will give you a far different picture than what is portrayed in the media and by many practitioners.

ahimsa42 wrote:...if you are interested in learning more,, i would suggest doing what i did and googling some of the many available research papers on the subject as they will give you a far different picture than what is portrayed in the media and by many practitioners.

Excellent suggestion.

I recommend the ‘Google Scholar’ website as a great resource for those without access to a university library. Look for links w/ pdf.

i was not aware of this resource so thanks for sharing Richard. as an example, one of the many fascinating things i learned by reading the papers is that there is a strong correlation between one's ability to roll their eye's back in their head and their hypnotizability. the higher one is able to roll their eyes and the more the sclera is showing, the higher their susceptibility to hypnosis. no one is sure why but there is some kind of neurological connection between the two. personally, i found that i am unable to roll my eyes in my head at all so thankfully do not possess the disability of being highly hypnotizable.